Dear Families,
This week has clearly been a very difficult and distressing week for many families across Melbourne, including some in our own community. These sorts of events can surface lots of emotions and have the potential to cause trauma or reawaken unwelcome events from the past.
What do we do when these types of events happen? We instinctively draw our own children closer, as we should, but we also need to recommit ourselves to doing everything we can to ensure that the children in educational environments are safe.
It reminds us that our greatest priority is the safety of the children in our care. We need to work together, to be diligent but also critically reflective, to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make sure our children are safe, but also to support each other when faced with times of challenge. The very ethos of a Catholic school is community; this is the heart of our faith, and we are committed to supporting our families at this difficult time. Please keep the families impacted in your thoughts and prayers.
STAFFING UPDATE
Last week, I announced some changes to our staffing. There are some updates to the information I announced last week:
- Lorraine Stevenson, currently our Learning Diversity Leader, will take on the Acting Deputy Principal role for Semester Two.
- Natalie Bruzzese, currently our Languages Leader (Auslan), will take on the Acting Religious Education Leader role for Semester Two.
- Clifton Neill, who will be teaching in our Discovery Six, replacing Kandi Barrowcliffe and Alec Montoya, who will be teaching in our Curiosity Two class, replacing Jamien Russell, will arrive in Australia in mid-July, which is really encouraging news.
- Lindsey Manushewitz, who was supposed to be taking on the class vacated by our new Religious Education Leader, Natalie Bruzzese, has declined the offer of a position in our school, despite initially accepting. This means that Natalie will need to remain as the classroom teacher until such time as we can find a suitable replacement.
- We are still seeking a replacement for Rachel Wilson. We are investigating a number of possible avenues, but we have no replacement teacher yet. Please pray for us as we attempt to find a solution to this challenge.
- Sung Zathing, one of our Learning Support Officers who joined our community at the start of this year, will be leaving our school at the end of this term. Sung has found the travel time too difficult in the morning and has sought a similar position in a school closer to home. We will look to find a suitable replacement for Sung next term.
FAREWELL TO STAFF
This week, we farewell Caroline, Kandi, Rachel and Sung from our staff team. We wish them all the best for their new roles and adventures.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to our Challenge Grade Five and Six girls who have triumphed in the local primary school soccer tournament. They have now reached the third and final stage in the West Metro Football finals. Thank you also to our sports teacher, Alessio and our Challenge One teacher, Natalie Bruzzese for supporting them.
We also congratulate Xavier and Sebastian in Grade Two and Four, who won the prize of an iPad, donated to school by Teltech, for raising the most money. Well done, boys!
EXPLORATION LEARNING COMMUNITY NEWS
To finish our unit about community in investigations, the Exploration Learning Community had some fantastic parents come in and talk with us about their special jobs in the community. Thank you so much to the parents, we loved learning from you.
NAIDOC WEEK
This week, we celebrated NAIDOC week across our school. Look at what the Exploration children created!
A REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE FROM OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY
As stated in this newsletter, we have a number of new staff members starting in our school next term. Jessica Romano (UK), Madison (US), Cliff (Canada), and Alec (US) are all moving from overseas. As many of our families will understand, moving countries is no easy challenge, especially with a young family as is the case for Madison and Jessica.
If you think that you might be able to help, please let me know. We want to make this move to Australia and our school a positive experience for them, and as a Catholic school, this should be a foundational aspect of our culture.
TERM THREE, WEEK ONE: ST LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI FEAST DAY, GRANDPARENTS LITURGY
A reminder to our community that the first day of Term Three is Tuesday, July 22. There is no school on Monday, July 21.
Also, as noted last week, we now have a student-free curriculum day on Friday, September 5. This is not an additional day but a rescheduling of a tentatively arranged date that was suggested at the start of the year.
The Admin team will send out an updated Semester Two calendar at the start of next term.
SEMESTER TWO
Term Three
July
21/07: Start of Term Three
22/07: St Lawrence of Brindisi Feast Day: Jnr School Prayer Service @ 9.30am/Snr School Mass @
12.30pm
25/07: Grandparents Prayer Service & Morning Tea: 9.15 – 10.30am
30/07: Prayer Service: Grade Two & Three / Grade Four – Six @ 2.40pm
August
08/08: Mary Mackillop Prayer Service: Snr School @ 9.15am/Jnr School @ 11.30am
13/08 – 15/08: Curiosity Learning Community Camp
13-14/08: Grade Four Camp
14-15/08: Grade Three Camp
15/08: Feast of Assumption: Snr School @ 9.15am/Jnr School @ 11.30am
18 -22/08: Book Week ‘Book an Adventure’
19/08: PSGs
Confirmation Sacramental Retreat (Grade Five students)
20/08: Prayer Service: Exploration & Grade One / Grade Four – Six @ 2.40pm
21/08: Exploration – Grade Six Learning Expo: 2.30 – 6.30pm
24/08: Confirmation @ St Patrick’s Cathedral @ 2:00pm
26/08: 2026 Foundation Parent Information Night #1
27/08: Prayer Service: Grade Two & Three / Grade Four – Six @ 2.40pm
God bless,
Bill Hill
PRINCIPAL